A look at the world through my eyes. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes somewhere in between.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Disaster Preparedness

It is time for me to address disaster preparedness. Living in Oklahoma we are very familiar with tornadoes. That is one of the few natural disasters that really have little to no warning. The others being earthquakes and tsunamis (although that depends on how far away you are from the epicenter).

I work with lots of researchers who try and figure out why tornadoes form so they can come up with even larger lead times for warnings and reduce the number of false warnings. And that's what I want to talk about. Please pay attention to any warning, even if you don't think it is serious. These meteorologists have gotten so much better over the years using technology that if they say there is a warning, take cover. I don't care if you have had 15 false alarms and you think you know better. YOU DON'T! Do you really want to risk your life because it inconviences you to go to a shelter?

I really think the media does a disservice when they interview people who say they had no warning. YES they did in most cases. It is just that they weren't paying attention to the warning or they decided to ignore it.

So have a plan. Know where to go. Most of all, pay attention. Listen to the experts.